Event Overview

What is it?

Mix N’ Mentor brings together promising entrepreneurs with top regional and global mentors. Thanks to its unique format and high profile delegates, 74% of past participants say they saw a direct improvement on their business.

Mentorship sessions

At the core of the event are the mentorship sessions. Entrepreneurs will be matched with mentors based on profiles and needs. Various topics will be addressed throughout the sessions.

Workshops

There will be a number of workshops all throughout the event, ranging from User Acquisition to Public Speaking.

Fireside Chat

At the end of the day, the whole group comes together to reflect on learnings in a fun, collaborative and very casual setting.

Networking

Mix N’ Mentor is designed to be a cosy event. No speeches or panels, it’s all about peer to peer learning and networking with high quality mentors. Entrepreneurs will build new connections and deepen old ones.

Schedule

1

9:15 - 10:00

Registration & Networking

2

10:00 - 11:00

Opening

3

11:00 - 13:00

Mentorship Sessions

4

13:00 - 14:30

Duhr Prayer and Lunch

5

14:30 - 16:30

Afternoon Workshops

6

16:30

Fireside Chat & Closing

Sponsors

CER

Mentors (16)

Abdulrahman Al Bassam

President at AWN Enterprises

Abdulrahman founded AWN Enterprises in 2007 and currently acts as its president. The company focuses on investments in sectors such as real estate and Food & Beverage in quality and "extended-value-adding" projects. Professionally, since 2008, he has founded, co-founded and acquired a number of SMEs. He is a member of the Young Businessmen Council of the Eastern Province and the internationally renowned EY NextGen Club. He holds an MBA from the University of Strathclyde Business School in Glasgow, UK and a Bachelors of Science from the University of Calgary, Canada.

Bader AlZahrani

Managing Director of Endeavor Saudi Arabia

Bader comes from diversified disciplines. He led the SME development and debt financing division at the Saudi Aramco Entrepreneurship Center (WA’ED), where he worked directly with more than 200 startup companies in their business development stage, credit evaluation and approval while managing a portfolio exceeding $50M. He comes from a technical background that involved IT governance, database design, geophysical technologies. Besides his 10 years’ corporate experience, he had advised and invested in various local and international ventures in field such as motion pictures, streaming services, broadcasting technologies and SaaS.

Deemah Alshaya

General Manager at Marketedia

An alumna of King Saud University, Deemah has an in-depth experience in digital marketing. She started her digital marketing path in Ayadee Magazine as an editor. Shortly after, she handled the freelance editor equips and managed artwork, design, and photography. Lamya then moved to Ghalia, focusing on social media Deemah public relations integration efforts, meanwhile acting as an online marketing consultant. Deemah established Matketedia in 2015 and currently serves as its General Manager.

Hani Enaya

Member of the Investment Committee at Riyad Taqnia Fund

Hani has a unique diverse experience across different disciplines. He is Head of Investments at Taqnia and Managing Director of the $120 million Riyad Taqnia Fund. He is also cofounder and board member of Carbonics, a startup that Hani has spun out when he was an assistant professor at KACST & visiting professor at UCLA. Hani also cofounded and invested in Mad Tomato, a Saudi media company that counts as one of Saudi’s largest firms in digital marketing solutions. Hani served as the Director of the Center of Excellence for Green Nanotechnologies (CEGN) at UCLA and KACST during the period 2010-2014. Prior to CEGN, he spent more than 2 years with the Islamic Development Bank Group as a structured finance investment manager focusing on energy public private partnership (PPP) deals in the Middle East and SouthEast Asia.

Jihad Alammar

Investment Principal at TAQNIA

n expert in building and scaling Internet companies and products, Jihad has over 10 years managerial experience in developing and investing in high tech companies. In 2006, he built Qaym.com, the first restaurant reviews startup in the Arab world which was visited by 3.5 million unique visitors in 2015. He acted as a Senior Investment Manager in Mobility and Mobility Ventures and moved to TakaMol Holding as a Product Manager before his current role as Investment Principal at TAQNIA.

Lamya Abdulkarim

Assistant Professor in Speech Pathology at King Saud University, Riyadh

Lamya received her Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts. She also earned her clinical license from the American Speech and Hearing Association. She received training in entrepreneurship, management and leadership at MIT, Oxford and Smith College. She was a Fulbright scholar. She currently serves the chair of the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences-Females. She conducts research in developing standardized clinical language tests for the Saudi Arabic speaking children. She has developed the rst girls sports academy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in soccer and basketball and related sports to promote health, well being and leadership in young girls.

Maha Taibah

Managing Partner at Eradah

Maha Taibah founded Eradah to prepare the youth population to meet the demands of a rapidly evolving socio-economic climate. Her government insider experience equips her to converge public and private entities to accomplish complex programs that build national-scale capacity. She invested 3 years as the human capital development Advisor to the Minister of Labor with a concurrent role as Vice Governor for Strategic Initiatives at the TVTC—one of the highest positions in Saudi Government. As a model of advancing opportunities for women and youth, Maha is often turned to for her caring counsel and she strives to enhance her creative leadership and extend her own horizons globally.

Mazin Alshanbari

Business Development Manager at TakaMol Holding

Mazin comes from a banking background, where he spent 7 years between NCB in Jeddah and Banco Santander in Boston. He returned to Saudi in 2013 to start a career in venture capital; that’s when he was introduced to and joined Takamol Holding, which was investigating the VC industry and its impact on job creation. Upon joining Takamol, Mazin spent a month in South Korea learning about the different VC support programs. Upon his return, he started developing a program called “Musharakah” to support and empower the VC and PE industry in the Kingdom by providing guarantees for bank facilities to qualified Fund Managers. The program was successfully launched in January 2015 and is currently in the process of onboarding three Venture Capital and two Private Equity Funds (Total Guarantees: SAR 1.1 Billion) with plans of onboarding more funds in future rounds of the program.

Mohammed Asfour

CEO at Kharabeesh

Mohammed comes from over 16 years of experience in the Arabic creative industry. Since 2001, he has worked on several entrepreneurial projects that have had a strong impact on regional entertainment and content creation (among several other fields in the domain). In 2010, he cofounded Think Arabia alongside Wael Attili and three other founders, which comprised of Kharabessh (an animation studio), Untitled (a design studio), and Wikikiwis (a web technology company).

Muteb Alobeiwi

KSA Country Manager & GCC Regional Manage at PayFort

Muteb is the Regional Director at PayFort and has been with the company since the early days. Muteb works closely with his teams who are responsible for helping startups and companies with the payment stack in the region. He graduated from Lincoln University in New Zealand and continues to serve as a mentor and advisor to a number of entrepreneurial and government entities across GCC.

Najla Barasain

Senior Business Development Specialist at TakaMol Holding

Najla holds a notable experience in the startup scene, having advised for and taken leadership over several entrepreneurial projects. In 2013, she assumed the role of CEO for Tasamy Social Initiatives Center, before founding Rasmah, the PopUp Painting Studio in Riyadh that offers different painting programs. She now holds the role of Senior Business Development Specialist at TakaMol Holding, managing 9/10ths Startup Accelerator Program.

Nour Al Hassan

CEO at Tarjama

Nour founded Tarjama in 2008 in Amman. In 2011, she moved the company to Abu-Dhabi, guiding it as it grew into a regional company, employing 40 full-time staff and 200 freelance staff in four Arab countries. Nour is an advocate of women’s empowerment, and Tarjama’s high impact business model is a reflection of this passion. The model involves training, hiring, and promoting women who might not otherwise have been able to enter the workforce. Of the 200 women Tarjama has trained over the past few years, 100 have been hired by the company on a part-time or freelance basis. Nour is also the co-founder of the highly successful Jordanian-based luxury events company, Pinkmoon Events.

Redha AlHaidar

General Manager at Attariq Communications

Redha is a strategic communications and civic engagement advisor to different entities in Saudi Arabia. In addition, he is consultant to other private entities in the UAE, and Kuwait. He has over 14 years of experience in USA and KSA leading government relations campaigns and orchestrating successful outreach initiatives with a number of public and private agencies including SAGIA, CMA, and Attariq Communications. He is also an entrepreneur and has co-founded OPTA Statistics Middle East, Sports agency, G:Lab, and BITMAL. Redha holds a Masters degree in Public Administration and Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, a Masters degree in Communication, Culture, and Technology and Honorary certificate in International Business Diplomacy from Georgetown University.

Wael Attili

Cofounder | VP of Content at Kharabeesh

Wael comes with a rigorous background in content and is highly experienced in the field of Arabic content specifically. In 2004, Wael started a number of companies, including Ikbis, the first Arabic video and photo sharing website. In 2010, along with Firas Al-Otaibi, Mohammed Asfour, and two other partners, Wael founded Think Arabia to fill the gap of online Arabic content. A one-stop-shop for Arabic animated content and multimedia design, Think Arabia comprises three businesses: Kharabessh (an animation studio), Untitled (a design studio), and Wikikiwis (a web technology company). Kharabeesh produces, co-produces and publishes online shows, short films and series for social media and youtube.

Waleed AlBanawi

Founder & Chairman at JISR Venutre Partners

As a former shareholder, Director and C-suite Executive of the Banawi Industrial Group, Waleed is well acquainted with typical corporate needs in the areas of attracting and maintaining talent. He has faced a variety of business challenges in the fast growing Middle East economy and chose to be proactive about delivering solutions to alleviate the gap between education and employment among the Arab youth. In addition to his corporate background, Waleed has actively led and participated in several not-for-profit and educational organizations and initiatives. He has been a strong voice amongst leading thinkers in business, academia and policymakers about education development to address the workforce skill-set gap including empowering and supporting progressive entrepreneurs.

Ziad Jarrar

Founder & Chief Design Officer at Taurus

Ziad comes from a strong design background. Having graduated with a Diploma of Advertising Design from the International Academy of Design, Ziad took on leading roles in the field, cofounding several startups such as Oobers, Spotmedia, and Maqasid (among many), and assuming leadership roles such as Consulting Managing Director for McCann Erickson and Head Of Youth Think Tank/Head Of Communication for Al Aghar.